I Remember Masyaf Nights
by The Hark-ness monster
Summary: Altiar visits Malik one night to plague him with memories of the old days but hate and anger cannot cancel out love.
1. Chapter 1

Assassin's Creed

An Altair/Malik fan fiction

I Remember Masyaf nights

That night it was cold, it was late, I just wanted to curl up in the corner of soft, fluffy pillows and maybe enjoy the comfort of a few illusive minutes of rest. But sleep remained out of my grasp since I foolishly forced myself to stay awake, constantly torturing myself with busy work. I stood at one of the bureau shelves replacing the pile of books that had been accumulating on my desk over the past week or so.

I sighed into the hot, stale air.

Suddenly, I was not alone anymore. A muffled thud from the outer room alerted me that an assassin had entered the bureau. I was not expecting anyone. I turned to see who it was.

As soon as I caught sight of the visitors face I turned away, but I knew that his gaze, those piercing eyes were still on me. I could feel his harsh, golden irises burning holes in the back of my robe.

Flustered, blushing and angry I tried to calm myself as I asked, "What are you doing here?" It came out in a sigh.

"Checking up on my favorite Dai of course," he said with such a lack of emotion I could only assume it was sarcasm. I obviously wasn't his favorite, and even if I was, I certainly didn't care. No matter how he meant it, it wasn't a compliment.

I rolled my eyes even though he could not see them. I still refused to show him my face. "Spare me the flattery," I shot back with equal venom. "Then again, you are only granted a limited amount of breath so if you wish to waste it on me be my guest."

He paused for a moment and there was silence while he thought.

"I do not find speaking with you a waste of time." His voice echoed off the walls. He always spoke so loudly…

"Well feel free to throw away your time by speaking to someone who does not value a single word that falls from your lips, but don't let that person be me. Not this time. I have better things to do than to listen to foolishness pour from your tongue. I have no mission for you. Leave."

"No," he refused flatly. I scoffed. He was as loud and stubborn as a donkey. As ugly as one too. No…I knew I didn't really believe that. I flipped nervously through the pages of the book conveniently in my hand in an attempt to avoid thinking what I really thought of him.

"Why not? Have you nothing better to do than to stare at me as I'm trying to work? If not that would not surprise me." I raised my voice louder than I would have liked but he was making my blood boil. Why couldn't he just leave me alone…forever.

"I came to speak with you Malik."

_Obviously. Stupid novice. _

"Speak then, but know that I will not listen. I am done with this conversation."

I turned my back on him now, not only physically which I had already been doing for several minutes, but also mentally. I wanted to completely shut him out, as if he never came, as if he never existed.

"Yes you will."

It took a moment to battle through my irritation to even comprehend what he was saying. I turned around halfway before I stopped myself and I choked on the irritated "_What?" _that stuck in my throat. I had to remind myself that I was done with him. I turned back to the books, threw the one in my hand on the shelf and quickly grabbed another. I didn't even know what I was doing anymore…  
>"You <em>will<em> listen. I know you will," he said. "It is _so_ like you to say one thing and do another. Have you forgotten that I know you better than anyone else…" I could imagine the wicked grin form on his face with the next vile thing he said, "Inside and out."

Seething with anger, I spun around wildly and launched the unlucky book in my hand at where he was standing. I didn't aim. I was too angry for that. I shouted in frustration, it was almost a growl.

The book didn't hit him, I cursed in my head. He ducked just in time to avoid the projectile.

"See. I even know how to dodge the things you throw at me."

When I finally looked at him it was with pleading eyes. _Don't do this_, I seemed to say without speaking.

That wicked smirk he had been wearing fell from his face when my sad eyes met his and perhaps he became a little more sympathetic.

"Anyway, I thought you said you weren't going to listen."

He was right. I had to just ignore him. I knew Altair. He certainly wasn't going to leave on his own and no one in this world was going to make him. I returned to my work, or at least tried to make myself look busy. Maybe I could convince him that I _wasn't_ listening, but first I had to convince myself.

A biting silence fell in the room. I tried to pretend he wasn't there but those attempts were useless when he opened his big mouth again. But this was not just his usual hot air. It almost made me forget that I wasn't actually listening.

"You remember when we were young don't you?"

I heard him take a few steps as he began to pace around the room.

"I keep going back to the first time…the first time we knew that what we had was different…"

_He came to my room quietly in the middle of the night and we were out of there like desert foxes, swiftly, silently and without hesitation, free as birds, young and foolish. We thought nothing could stop us._

_We stole away into the night, cutting through the cold, dry air. Finally, far enough away from the Masyaf fortress, we collapsed, laughing and out of breath, onto the cool, star-soaked earth._

_Neither of us knew exactly what we were doing but we both knew that this was where we wanted to be._

_A few moments went by of frivolous conversation, on our backs, side by side, beneath a blanket of stars. _

_A brief silence settled itself between us and we committed ourselves to appreciating the beautiful night around us. Continuing this admiring mood, Altair turned to me and seemed to just stare for a moment before he spoke._

_"You know what I love about you?"_

_I was caught off guard. The phrase sounded strange on his voice. "What?" I asked._

_The way he looked at me…I couldn't resist gazing back. Then he continued._

_"Your eyes, your smile, your laugh…your lips," and before I could do or say anything the space between us collapsed and he forced his lips onto mine, though it was not as forceful as either of us expected. After the initial shock had passed I found myself kissing him back._

_It didn't last long, we were both young and confused, no more than sixteen years old. But right then knew that something about this was undeniably right._

_After we pulled away I swallowed twice at the strange new taste and gathered my nerves for what I was about to say._

_"You know what I love about you?" My voice was fragile and sheepish._

_"What?" he asked, not taking his eyes off me._

_I stopped. I hadn't actually thought about what I was going to say after that. I blinked twice and turned my eyes to the stars._

_"I don't even really know where to begin," I said. "There are more reasons than there are stars in the sky…or fireflies in that field." He looked to his left to see what I was referring to and indeed the valley below was sprinkled with tiny, flashing, florescent lights. "I love _you_, Altair."_

_He turned back to me with a gentle pink glow to his cheeks._

_"Malik, can I promise you something?" he said._

_I smile. "Of course." _

_"I promise that I'll always stay with you. Through everything." The glimmer in his eyes was heartbreaking._

_"Everything?" I questioned. "That's going to be a lot considering we're assassins."_

_"Everything," he assured me with the sweetest of smiles. "Because I believe you're worth it."_

_I sighed and said, "I hope you're right."_

_"That I'll stay with you?"_

_"No, that I'm worth it."_

_He didn't say anything, just took my face between his hands and kissed me hard._

_His lips, without speaking, told me he would be there for me, always._

But I knew now that he had broken his promise, and he had taken my brother away from me…

_Heat grew between us, the kiss grew more intense but I stopped it before it went too far._

_Catching my breath, "We'd better get back to the fortress before we do anything really foolish," I breathed. _

_He smiled his wickedly charming grin…_in the memory and reality. As he continued to narrate I found myself staring at the map on my desk doing nothing _but_ listening. I cursed in my head.

"But the really foolish things didn't start until your eighteenth birthday. Surely you remember that, don't you?"

I sighed a long sigh. Yes…yes I did.

_It was the day of my eighteenth birthday. Altair wasn't there. He had been sent on a scouting mission with one of the masters as a part of his training. He'd been gone three days and I was stuck doing research in the dusty library. _Much like how I was stuck now at my desk job in Jerusalem.

_Altair and I had always been there for each other's birthday. This was the first year we were separated and it was turning out to be officially the worst birthday ever. I don't know why but this day had always been important to me. Maybe because I felt fortunate enough to even have a birthday. Many of the assassins had been given to the order. They were orphans or unwanted. They had to guess how old they were._

_But I knew very well that I was eighteen and all I wanted was for Altair to be here with me. Late nights among the silent books left one lonely and anxious._

_Just before I was about to leave for the night I heard footsteps in the library. I only expected it to be a late night passer-by but when two strong arms wrapped around my waist I knew who it was._

_His gentle fingers slipped the book from my hands and tossed it aside._

_"Have I been replaced by books, Malik?" he whispered in my ear, breathing warmly on my neck._

_I chuckled and turned around in his arms._

_"Nothing could replace you, habib." I stole a kiss in the empty hall. "I'm glad you're back."_

_"And I am equally glad to be back," he confessed. "I was excited to learn we would be back tonight. This night is unlike any other you know."_

_"Oh, and why is that," I teased._

_"Because today's…your birthday."_

_He grabbed my hand and we dashed out of the library, away to someplace hidden._

_We found that place in a dusty broom closet up several floors in the dormitories. It wasn't exactly romantic but it served our purpose._

_It began with me, my back to the wall and Altair pressed against me hard. His excited hands pulled at my robes and ran up and down my back. His lips traveled the entire landscape of skin from my neck to my lips. Our breath quickly grew hot and heavy, trapped in the small room. _

_This was not working and we both knew it. Sure, this closet had been fine at first but we knew we couldn't get what we really wanted in here._

_"Wait," I said, stopping him for just a moment. We pulled away each trying to catch our breath. "Wouldn't this work better…in a bedroom?" _

_I could barely see his eyes in the darkness but I saw them grow wide._

_"Yes," he replied._

_"Yours or mine?"_

_"Yours." _

_And we got out of there very quickly._

Like he said, that's when things got really foolish.

_As soon as we got to my room the door was shut and locked. _It's not hard to guess where things went from there. _Our clothes were off in seconds. It was the first night of many that happened like this…_

The air in the bureau echoed with Altair's words telling me a story, a story whose end I already knew.

He started to go into all the painful details…_Hot lips and a hungry tongue pressed against my skin, tracing a line down my chest…further…further down…_

"Stop!" I screamed with all my lungs. It was so loud it scared him. It scared me. I was certain it had woken half the city. For a long time we just stared at each other, but at least he had stopped speaking. Now if only he would never speak again, but I knew that would only happen in my dreams.

He stood up confidently from where he had been lounging across the bureau. I watched him approach. He got closer than I would have liked but my mind was racing, too preoccupied to do anything but stare like a dumb mule. Golden eyes caught the moonlight and shone like wicked fire or daggers pointing my way.

"You can't tell me you've forgotten these things Malik," he told me darkly, coming closer still. I took a shaky step backwards. A shadow fell across his face as he shifted out of the moonlight. "These things bind us together. You can never escape them. You cannot deny what we once had."

I slapped him. The sound was like thunder in the storm of my anger and the rain was my tears that were regrettably forming in my eyes. They were tears of anger, hate, nostalgia.

When he recovered he seemed unmoved. He looked terrifying and hurt but I wasn't afraid of him and I wasn't afraid to hurt him.

"Fine, maybe this will remind you."

I was trapped between him and the desk. He pushed me against it so hard I felt that my spine might crack. He forced himself on me and pressed his lips to mine in a stolen kiss. I did not want this. How could he do this to me?

No. I am done. I grabbed the fabric of his robed with my one lonely arm and shoved him away throwing him to the ground. He expected me to be helpless, well, ha. He underestimated me. Even with only one arm I was still an assassin, and I could still get angry. Now even more than ever.

Finally, for the first time that night, he looked shocked, offended. It felt good to know that I had power over him too. I didn't have to be the victim.

"What is wrong with you?" I spat. It felt as though I was a snake, hissing those bitter words. "Get out." He didn't move. "Get out of here you bastard! Get out!" I screamed. I was about to lose it. Tears were reinforced with pure, biting emotion.

After what seemed like much too long he pulled his pathetic figure off the floor, gave me one last indescribable glance and left. Finally…finally he left.

I breathed a sigh of relief and swallowed all my tears that had been gathering ever since his presence had poisoned the peace of my bureau.

I hated him. I honestly and truly hated him. And yet, beneath all my hatred was something that had been there long before the hate. Something that my hate, no matter how strong, could never cover up. It was always going to be there, lodged in my heart like a knife, slowly, slowly killing me.

I rushed to the entrance of the bureau. I scarcely knew what I was doing but I scrambled up the carved stone wall so fast it seemed impossible with only one arm.

When I reached the roof, wind pulled at my robe and threw it back against me. It was strong, accompanied by clouds that blacked out the stars.

"Altair!" I screamed into the night. All houses were dark, all the streets empty. I thought I saw his robed figure move but it was only the fabric on a roof garden pushed about in the breeze. I was utterly alone.

I cursed this night. _Who needs him anyway_, I thought. _You do_, my thoughts said back to me.

* * *

><p>I lay in my bed thinking only of him, wishing I could think of anything else but I couldn't. It was going to be a long night.<p>

And it got longer when I heard him come in. Not just into the bureau, into my room. I knew he would come back. He wasn't going to leave me alone.

But I was done arguing with him. I was _done._ I just let him approach and didn't protest when he laid down beside me.

"I remember," I managed to say but I refused to turn and face him. The tears that I thought I had banished not too long ago returned quickly, more potent than before. If I looked at his face I knew I would not be able to hold them back.

"I know," he whispered as his arm slid around my waist. "I know."

He was always right and I knew it, he knew it. I hated that he knew it. I hated that he was always right.

I was tired of hating him, it was emotionally exhausting, but I couldn't stop. I couldn't just stop hating him. And even worse…I couldn't stop loving him.

Then I decided to just accept the moment as it was. I was too weak to do anything else. We were here and that was the end of it. I chose not to care anymore.

I fell asleep a short while later.


	2. 2

**Point of View Change! This is NOT from Malik's point of view. It's third person because I started writing this before I wrote the 1st part and frankly I was exhausted from writing Malik's point of view...so much emotion! . Well anyway, hope this transition isn't too awkward.**

* * *

><p><span>I Remember Masyaf Nights<span>

Altair woke to an empty bed. He blinked twice at the light streaming in from the tiny window. Squinting through the haze of a dusty room and tired eyes he was sure that his bedmate had not gotten far. Swinging his legs over the side, he stood and let the cold of the hard stone floor soak through the soles of his feet. He walked to the entrance and pushed aside the fabric in the doorway.

Stepping onto the wooden ledge that hung above the bureau desk, the boards creaked with the shifting of his weight. It must have alerted Malik to his presence. He was standing just below working at his desk. But if Malik was aware of Altair he didn't show it. He hunched over a map, glanced at an open book and moved a feather dripping with ink across the surface of the parchment.

Altair swung down and dropped to the floor, intentionally ignoring the ladder that was at his disposal, taking every opportunity to show off. He landed behind Malik and swooped in for a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Morning, love," he said in his lovers ear.

"Don't do that," Malik said, clear and emotionless.

"Why not?" Altair asked teasingly, not buying into Malik's harsh sincerity. He snaked his arms around the other man's waist.

The dai shoved him away roughly with his shoulder, forceful and violent. "Stop. Not here."

Altair's arms fell to his sides in defeat and he moved around the bureau desk to the other side so he could look Malik in the eyes.

"What's wrong, habib?" his degrading tone did not cease. "You weren't like this last night." He moved to place his hand on Malik's but the dai pulled his out of the way.

"Nothing happened last night." He turned his back on the assassin. Malik seemed emotionless, but that's why he had turned away, to keep that illusion. He was more affected then he wanted Altair to see. He couldn't let the assassin see the truth which was so obviously painted on his face.

"You call that nothing," Altair hissed bitterly, very clearly irritated.

Malik didn't speak.

"Fine," Altair said and he began to back away from the desk. "But I know how you get like this Malik. This isn't the first time." Malik ignored his pleas. "And I won't rest until you forgive me." The passion in those last words struck the dai hard and made his heart bleed. But he killed this emotion quickly.

"Good," he whispered just loud enough for Altair to hear. Fed up and emotionally drained, Altair gave the dai one last glance, turned on his heels and stormed out of the bureau. This parting seemed final, decisive on both of their parts but Malik knew that it was not final. They had something that could not be broken.

Malik heard Altair's booted feet cross the flat roof of the secret room and sighed. He'd never been so glad to see that man go. But he'd never wished so much that he would come back.


End file.
